Signed English:

Jay Reynolds
April 28, 2008

Language Choices: Considering SEE and ASL

Wouldn't you
rather talk to your two-year-old rather than trying to decipher cries?
Better still, would you like to be able to talk intelligently and hold a
conversation with your toddler before he or she can speak? More and more,
parents are discovering that they can in fact communicate with their
young children. Teaching your child sign language has a number of side
benefits, including earlier speech development, greater aptitude for
literature, and better self-esteem, (Porter, 2008). You do not necessarily
need to be deaf in order to use a sign language. Sign language comes
in many different forms and combinations. Which one is right for you? In
this essay, we will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of two of the
most popular forms of sign language: American Sign Language and Signed Exact
English.

American
Sign Language (ASL) is “a language of hand gestures and symbols widely used
by deaf and hearing-impaired people for communication. ASL has its own
grammar rules, and puts words in different order than English” (Kagan & Gall
1998). ASL is known as a “living language.” There is a growing
culture of people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, and ASL is the native
language of this culture. As the culture grows and evolves, so does the
language. This means there is an inherent cultural quality to ASL, so in
addition to learning a language, you can also learn about a different
culture. Children with short attention spans benefit from ASL because
sentences or complete thoughts that otherwise would take several words to
convey can be condensed down to a single gesture." (Porter, 2008)
ASL has greater long-term value because it is the official language used by
the Deaf community, so if you learn ASL, you can not only talk with your
two-year-old, but with your Deaf neighbors, too!

There are some
drawbacks to ASL. Most parents who sign to children are not deaf, thus they
themselves do not know ASL as their native language. This means both the
infant and the parent are trying to learn the language at the same
time. Also, ASL has it's own distinct grammar rules, which can cause
confusion when transitioning to spoken English.

The Encyclopedia
of Childhood & Adolescence defines Signed Exact English (SEE) as “[a]
specific signing system which incorporates word endings and English word
order in a specific signing style (Kagan & Gall 1998). Little regard is made
for conceptual accuracy, (Porter, 2008). In other words, SEE's
grammar, unlike ASL, is exactly the same as English, which means you will
not have to learn the grammar in addition to the signs, and it will be
virtually devoid of the Deaf cultural influence. SEE is also good for young
children because it slows down adult speech, as the adult has to sign out
what they are saying. “They also have longer to process the information
because signs (visually) last longer than words and people naturally will
slow their speech when it is accompanied by a sign." (Porter, 2008).
Generally, parents will want to sign and say what they want to communicate
to their children when using SEE. This gives babies two forms of input
(sight and speech) to process the information, which aids the learning
process.

There still are
drawbacks to take into consideration. One such drawback is that SEE is not
considered a “true language;” it is not generally used by (and is usually
considered offensive to) the Deaf community, but rather is English that is
signed rather than spoken. One example of the culture shock one can
experience after learning SEE and expecting to function in the Deaf
community can be seen in the story of Sharelle Goff. Ms. Goff was
taught a combination of SEE and ASL (known as “pidgn sign”) in her
California home. When she moved to Utah and began getting involved in the
local Deaf community, she was shocked to find that she “was unable to
communicate clearly with her deaf student peers (Jillian, 2004),” because
they were using ASL, not SEE or pidgn sign. In conclusion, SEE is useful
only if you plan on using it to teach and communicate with your young
children; if you plan on using a sign language beyond this scope, then you
may consider taking up ASL.

DrVicars: Many of the signs are the same but there are some big
differences, mostly affixes and initialization.

Affixes are special invented English-specific signs to show concepts like
"-ment," "-ness," "-ly," and so forth.

Initialization happens when you take one of the letters of the English
gloss of the word and use it as the handshape for the sign. [Gloss is a way
of writing about or representing a language in
another language.]

Tigie: Like, family, class, team?

DrVicars: Right Tigie, except you need to realize that a few "invented"
signs that were formerly the property of Signed English, have now become
accepted in mainstream ASL because of their widespread use. So FAMILY,
CLASS, and TEAM are generally accepted as ASL, but many other
initialized signs are not (or not yet) accepted as ASL.

Tigie: Hmm, ok thanks

DrVicars: Let me explain a bit more and see if I can make the differences
more clear.

Signed English is a broad term that can refer a number of different
signing systems. But in general, Signed English systems (and there
are several different systems) use a combination of ASL signs, initialized
signs, and invented English-specific signs, in English word order. Another
system known as SEE (Signing Exact English, and/or the less common reference
Seeing Essential English), makes a Herculean effort to represent English on
the hands.

SEE uses a lot more initialization, and also tries to represent the various affixes (suffixes and prefixes like: -ment,
-ness, -ly, pre-, etc.) using special signs. We could have an entire course
just on the differences, but my suggestion is to remember that most Deaf
people are multilingual.

Most of them use a variety of styles according to their circumstances and
needs. In the classroom many Deaf learned Signed English from their teacher,
in the dorm they learned ASL from their "Dorm-Mother" or "Dorm-Father" [now
called dorm counselor] or the older students.

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